Benefits of Volunteering featuring Glodeane Brown
[AI ] TRANSCRIPT:
“Volunteering is a great way to network and meet other people. Building these relationships that can open doors to future opportunities and collaborations. I've met a lot of great people in various arts industries, from my volunteering experiences.”
Today we get to talk about the benefits of volunteering in the arts with Glodeane Brown. Glodeane Brown, a.k.a. Culture Fancier, is an arts and culture writer, an arts administrator, a culture manager, and a public art coordinator. She's on the City of Mississauga public Art selection committee and the external advisory committee of Oak Head's on site gallery. And she's on the board of Critical Distance Center for curators and of Creative Hub 1352. It is absolutely a delight to have Glodeane with us today. Thank you so much for being here. Hello and welcome.
Thank you so much. Heather, for having me and for that wonderful introduction. I'll just go right into it. So I'm kind of a serial volunteer in the arts.
My first tip or action about volunteering is that it can help you to increase your cultural awareness.
I think sometimes in the arts, we get stuck in our silos. You know, there's the visual arts, there's writing, there's music, theater performance. So sometimes we can get stuck in our specific discipline or the kind of, you know, art that we're doing. When you're volunteering, it increases your cultural awareness and exposes you to different artistic expressions. And it helps you to appreciate cultural and diversity.
My second, tip or insight would be, volunteering can teach you effective time management skills. So in the arts, you know, we all have a lot of different commitments. Balancing your volunteer commitments with other responsibilities. It teaches you effective time management skills.
My third insight, or tip, would be about working with artists, administrators, organizers and other volunteers that will improve your collaboration and teamwork building skills.
You'll learn to share ideas and all, learn to contribute to a common goal. We're all working towards the same thing in our different industries, but we all want the same result at the end.
My fourth tip or insight, would be that volunteering will improve your communication skills. Effective communication is key in all that we do.
Volunteering can enhance your ability to convey ideas clearly and build rapport with a wide range of people, including artists, funders, audiences, or other volunteers. And then my fifth tip or insight would be, networking opportunity is volunteering is a great way to, network and meet other people. You can connect with artists, professionals, fellow volunteers. Building these relationships that can open doors to future opportunities and collaborations.
I've met a lot of great people in various arts industries, from my volunteering, experiences.
So true and all so helpful and valuable. Thank you so much, Glodeane. Where can people find you online?
So my website, I'm also an arts and culture writer. I have a blog called Culture Fancier. So on, Instagram and Facebook would be my main social media platforms.
Yeah, I highly recommend all of them. Such such great content that you put out on your blog and your socials. It's such a pleasure to see you. I look forward to the next time I get to see you in person.
Thank you so much for being with us today.
Thank you for having me.
Volunteering is really valuable and important all through different stages of our careers, whether at the beginning of our career when we're looking to make contacts and get to know how arts organizations work, or all the way through our career to being on boards of directors and being mentors and other forms of volunteering.
So it's so valuable both for the organizations and the individuals that we can impact through our volunteering. And it's so, so helpful and valuable and rewarding for ourselves as well. So thanks so much to gloating Brown for sharing her thoughts about volunteering in the arts. And thank you for being with us today. Join us again next week for another High Five for arts leaders and creative entrepreneurs. We'll see you then.